Zach Top Berg:Wozzeck [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

When Alban Berg attended the first production of Georg Buchners play Woyzeck, he immediately knew that he wanted to base an opera off of the story line. His opera, Wozzeck, was composed between the years 1914 and 1922, and received its debut performance in 1925. The dark storyline centers around the soldier Wozzeck, who travels through a callous and at times sadistic world that he doesnt understand. He is tortured with medical experiments, ridiculed by his captain, and his lover, Marie, betrays him. He becomes a murderer and eventually secures his own demise. Renowned stage director Andreas Homoki brilliantly creates this dark and mysterious world, which explores the thin line between the unfathomable and ridiculous. Christian Gerhahers dramatic subtlety and vocal prowess is breathtaking in the title role, alongside the equally impressive Gun-Brit Barkim as Marie. Review DVD Award Winner - BBC Music Magazine Awards 2017: The production was a triumph. BBC Music Magazine critic Anna Picard described Gerhaher as 'matchless'; in turn Gerhaher describes Andreas Homoki's production as 'one of the best I've seen in my life'. /// This is a triumph gripping and moving. The performance of Christian Gerhaher is outstanding, but there is also much else to admire and recommend. RECORDING OF THE MONTH //// Something of a triumph for all concerned. --BBC Music Magazine, May'17 //// MusicWeb,Oct'16 //// Opera, May'17 This is a finely honed production that follows its premise to an absurdist conclusion with slick theatricality and dispassionate zeal. GRAMOPHONE EDITORS CHOICE --Gramophone,Nov'16 This DVD of Andreas Homoki's production- sensitively filmed for small screen by Michael Beyer, with a booklet containing interviews with Homoki and Luisi and a transcript of a 1930 radio interview with Berg- explains why that performance was a success. Performance ***** Picture and Sound ***** --BBC Music Magazine,Christmas'16